Attorneys—some, anyway—live in heady times. I follow some blogs and nearly every story touches matters legal. Unfortunately, in too many instances I find myself embarrassed and ashamed of too many fellow attorneys.

Before I go forth, let me clarify what I mean by attention. I’m not focused on attorneys doing good deeds. Writing principled, illuminating articles. Representing their clients well. The attention which bothers me involves television interviews. Press releases. And, yes, sometimes even statements made during book tours.

I’ve written lately—and often—about client confidentiality. Fundamentally, confidentiality and attention—as I have defined it—mesh poorly. We’re supposed to do our jobs quietly and, when we speak, we should be trying to illuminate, and we ought

Some background might be helpful. Search warrants, executed last Monday, generated a bunch of material from Michael Cohen. He’s an attorney who works for President Donald J. Trump. And Everett Broidy. And one more client, Sean Hannity.

The government and Judge Kimba Wood needed to know who Mr. Cohen represented. Why? To determine the scope of the claimed attorney-client privilege. The privilege only applies to communications between Mr. Cohen and his clients; whither, the need to know the identity of

In Donald J. Trump, Goner I promised some “basic facts about attorney-client privilege and attorney confidentiality issues.”* The promise grew out of the extraordinary search warrants directed to premises controlled by Michael Cohen, an attorney who does work for President Donald J. Trump.

Extraordinary search warrants? Yes. Mr. Cohen does have a license to practice law, and the warrants relate broadly to that client of his I mentioned previously.

On August 17, 2014 I posted Professional Responsibility; Confidentiality. Confidentiality represents a core part of the attorney-client relationship. Too often, unfortunately, we—yes, attorneys—ignore it or don’t understand it.

Plainly and simply: matters belong to clients, and not to their attorneys.* I work for you. The Rules of Professional Conduct and other sources set standards for me. And one of those standards—set forth in E(thical) R(ule) 1.6—tells me I can’t reveal “information relating to the representation of a client” without your consent. (There are several exceptions. They’re discussed in the 2014 piece, and not relevant here.)

“Information relating to the representation of the client” includes the very fact that an attorney-client relationship

Many words will be written about Lowell. They will surely understate the depth and breadth of his impact on so many lives. He was – he’d never use this word about himself, but used it often to describe others – a magnificent attorney. Bankruptcy gave him his reputation, but he was a leader nationally in the field of law office management. In other areas he worked at a high level on

An SNL-not sketch has been circulating in the last couple of days. It’s here, and it’s a Q and A between Senator John Kennedy (R – La.) and U.S. District Court nominee / Federal Elections Commissioner Matthew S. Petersen. And if I’m understanding Poe’s Law correctly – it’s Friday evening, I’m alone, and I’m into liquid refreshment – we’re looking at reality mimicking parody. (This dude knows eff-all about being a trial judge!)

The Problem

At the trial level our systems, state and federal, offer the greatest number of jobs and the hardest challenges. Like a funnel in reverse, the greatest number of judges handle trials. A much smaller number do

I am hosting a session on Exit Strategies for Business and Complex Asset Owners on November 16, 2017, in Tucson at 4:00 p.m. The session will entail a presentation and discussion of practical preparations, strategies, markets, and considerations vital to embarking on these transactions. Refreshments, too!

I have been practicing law in Tucson for nearly 40 years, focusing primarily on business and real estate law. Estate planning and fiduciary matters are also part of my practice. (I have been a Licensed Fiduciary—License No. 20546—for a dozen years, dealing mostly with cases involving complex assets, dysfunctional families, or both.) During my practice, I have worked with myriad situations involving a principal’s

I wrote Pardon! and No Egos at Mark Rubin Writes. Pardon? in June and July, respectively. When I wrote the pieces I really expected President Donald Trump would give his family his first high-profile pardons. No matter, for those pardons will surely follow. For now, the Arpaio pardon raises some interesting issues.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio was sued several years ago.** The suit involved racial profiling. Judge Murray Snow, a U.S. District Judge in Phoenix, held the sheriff and others in civil

Lots and lots of words, written and spoken about Mueller, Rosenstein, Russia, and Trump. Most of what we read and hear focuses on who can fire whom, and whether when the firings will happen. In and amongst the noise, though, we get plenty of “there’s no evidence” and “firing Mueller will destroy Trump.”

Bad frames. People, the Watergate break-in happened on June 17, 1972, 45 years ago, to the day. We live in a different world. To the “no evidence” crowd, evidence exists—or not—and we find out about it through investigations. They take time! Reading tweets, watching the news, and knowing the basics does not qualify you to say evidence does or does not exist to support a …

For many years the second quarter—April, May, and June—finds me talking. Yes, yes, I talk always, but the second quarter has me talking in public, mostly about professional ethics for attorneys. The State Bar of Arizona requires 15 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) between July 1 and June 30, and three of those hours must have ethics as their primary subject.

For reasons I don’t readily comprehend, many Arizona attorneys struggle to obtain their three hours of ethics. Whither, I—an attorney who devotes about one-third of his practice to ethics and related matters—get lots of opportunities to talk. My talking comprises some part of three hours, shared with one or more fellow panelists and, we